Glynn Wilson

House Speaker Nanci Pelosi speaking in Birmingham earlier this year…

Citizen Journalism Contest

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just published a book called Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.

Bob Fertik at Democrats.com has not yet read her book, but he wonders if her “message to America’s daughters” does not encourage them to rise to positions of power and then turn a blind eye to those who start wars based on lies that kill and mutilate hundreds of thousands of daughters and force millions to become refugees and prostitutes… who torture and murder prisoners who are the sons and husbands of daughters… who out-covert CIA operatives who are daughters, etc.

Pelosi kicked off her book tour on “The View” and Joy Behar asked her, “Why do you insist on not impeaching these people so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?” Pelosi did her best to avoid answering, but finally said:

“If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story… unless you have the goods that this president committed these crimes.”

Speaker Pelosi, meet Representative Dennis Kucinich. He’s “somebody” and he “has” 35+1=36 impeachable offenses, most of them involving statutory crimes — and “the goods that this president committed” them. In fact, he presented them to Congress in the exact form specified by the Founding Fathers: Articles of Impeachment. You even gave John Conyers permission to hold a hearing on Kucinich’s “crimes.”

So we have a simple question to follow-up on Joy Behar’s question:

Of the 36 detailed Articles of Impeachment introduced by Dennis Kucinich, do you consider any to be crimes? If yes, which? If no, why not — and what (if anything) would you consider an impeachable offense?

We’ve asked this question through Speaker Pelosi’s office, but we’ve never received an answer to our questions.

So we’re also announcing a Citizen Journalism Contest: We’ll pay up to $1,000 to any progressive citizen (or journalist) who succeeds in getting a direct and substantive answer to this question, and records it on video or audio tape for publication on Democrats.com.

Pelosi’s book tour includes call-in shows and book signings, so we encourage you to take advantage of every opportunity to ask her this question.

We also encourage you to do your homework before you ask Pelosi our question, so you can pin her down more successfully. Start by reading Kucinich’s 35+1 Articles of Impeachment. It makes sense to focus on one or several that you are familiar with already.

According to the Constitution, a President can be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” There is no definition that is more precise; former House Minority Leader (and later President) Gerald Ford said, “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

“High Crimes” are generally considered to mean abuses of the power of office, whether or not those actions are “crimes” outside the context of government. For example, Bush’s refusal to enforce duly-enacted laws by attaching legally-meaningless “signing statements” is one of the High Crimes documented in Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment.

“High Crimes” can also include familiar felonies like murder, torture, and fraud, which are also documented in Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment.

To start impeachment hearings, the House does not need to have “proof beyond a shadow of a doubt,” as a jury would need to convict someone of a crime. “Impeachment” in the House is the legal equivalent of “indictment” by a grand jury. The House simply collects evidence to present to the Senate for a trial. So the relevant standard for House evidence would be the lower standard of “probable cause.”

George Bush openly admits he committed several of Kucinich’s crimes, including approving warrantless wiretapping in violation of FISA and the Fourth Amendment. Bush also instructed current and former officials to refuse to comply with Congressional subpoenas and contempt citations. The House does not need to investigate these crimes, they can simply vote for the relevant Articles of Impeachment.

If you succeed, contact us with the details.

Once again, we’ll pay up to $1,000 to any progressive citizen (or journalist) who succeeds in getting a direct and substantive answer to this question, and records it on video or audio tape for publication on Democrats.com.

Fine print:

The amount of the award will depend on the specificity and depth of Pelosi’s answer in our judgment. A simple “Yes” or “No” is worth $100.

An award will be made only for each unique answer; for example, the $100 award for “Yes” or “No” will only be awarded the first time.

To qualify as a “progressive” citizen or journalist, you must be active with a known progressive group or news organization or website (including Democrats.com). Your activity can be as limited as volunteering or posting comments.

Good luck!

For more information, visit: Democrats.com.

Book Tour Schedule

Here’s a partial list of public appearances where you might catch her.

Author Tour Dates

Updates Below

It may be a symbolic movement only, but at least it shows there are some people in the United States of America who still believe in the Constitution and the rule of law.

The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing today, live on C-SPAN only and not being covered by the so-called mainstream news media, about the “imperial presidency of George W. Bush.”

Here’s how it’s being reported in a guest blog editorial by one of the activists leading the charge.

by David Swanson
AfterDowningStreet.Org

The House Judiciary Committee will put impeachment squarely back “on the table” today and restore to its prominent place in our Constitution.

Elliott Adams, President of Veterans for Peace, and a descendant of American revolutionary Sam Adams, will deliver this prepared testimony, in which, if his 5 minutes allow him to reach his conclusion, he will say:

“For us veterans, when our time came, we volunteered our very lives for this republic; for the principle of freedom for all, for equal opportunity for all, to defend the Constitution and the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence, and to guarantee the opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, Congressmen, it is your time, and I hear there is not enough time! Now is your time, and I hear it will not be good for one party or the other party! Now is your time, and I hear there is not enough political will around you! When our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence they were not worried about political will, or how much time there was, or about any parties’ political future, they were just worried they were going to be hanged by the neck. But they did what was right. Now it is your time to standup. Einstein said – ‘The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.’”

Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82, and Chairman of the American Freedom Agenda, will deliver this prepared testimony, beginning with this:

“If President George W. Bush had knocked to enter the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787, presiding convention president George Washington would have denied him admission. Thereby hangs an alarming tale. The executive branch has vandalized the Constitution every bit as much [sic] the barbarians vandalized Rome in 410 AD. The executive branch has destroyed the Constitution’s time-honored checks and balances and raced the nation perilously close to executive despotism. The executive branch rejects the basic philosophical tenets of the United States. It does not accept that America was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that sovereignty in a republican form of government lies with the people; that there are no vassals or serfs in the Constitution’s landscape; that every man or woman is a king or queen but no one wears a crown; and, that the rule of law is the nation’s civic religion. The Founding Fathers fashioned impeachment as a remedy for attacks against the constitutional order.”

The first panel Friday morning will include Congressman Dennis Kucinich making a case for impeachment based on the articles of impeachment he has drafted against Cheney and Bush. Also on the first panel will be Republican Congressman Walter Jones who has sought to end the funding of the occupation of Iraq, and who has expressed support for former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s proposal to prosecute former President George W. Bush, once out of office, for murder. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, a supporter of impeachment, is also on the panel.

The last witness is Congressman Brad Miller, but as the saying goes, “Three out of four ain’t bad.” And we’ve been mercifully spared Congresswoman Jane Harman, who at one point was scheduled to testify.

The second of two planned panels is even better, and includes Adams, Fein, Bugliosi, and six other witnesses. One of them, Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Representative from New York, will speak very persuasively for impeachment. Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Founder and President, High Roads for Human Rights, and the former Mayor of Salt Lake City, is likely to speak in support of impeachment too, while also supporting other alleged remedies.

One chronicler of Bush and Cheney crimes who in recent months has opposed impeachment is John Dean; he had been scheduled to appear but did not make the final cut. However, there are four witnesses on the second panel who may not help the cause of impeachment. Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, is a supporter of restoring the rule of law, but whether he’ll advocate restoration of the rule of the Constitution we shall see.

The other three almost certainly will not. They are: Bob Barr, Former Representative from Georgia, 2008 Libertarian Nominee for President; Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law; and Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law.

The big unknown is which members of the House Judiciary Committee, which has 40 members, will show up for a Friday hearing. A number of Republicans have already left town, and some of the most pro-impeachment Democrats have committed to being present. Watch Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, and Sheila Jackson-Lee for the most likely statements in support of beginning a true impeachment hearing.

Some of the witnesses in the past couple of days had expressed frustration with congressional rules forbidding accusations against the president, rules deriving from prohibitions on speaking ill of the king of England. But witnesses have been able to work around those rules by referring to “the executive branch” and other similar locutions rather than “the president” or “the vice president.”

While Chairman John Conyers almost certainly has every intention of preventing the commencement of a real impeachment hearing, he and his staff appear to have opened this one up significantly to the obvious and over-documented case for impeachment. Our hope lies in the likelihood that Conyers’ calculation is wrong when he supposes that Democrats will benefit from publicizing the case for impeachment and not suffer for failing to pursue it. If the public makes clear its demand for action, not just talk, the door that is cracking open may be very difficult to shut. “Stop the preaching and start impeaching” is a cheer that may be heard at a gathering of impeachment activists outside the Rayburn Building immediately following the hearing.

The day before the hearing, some of those impeachment advocates gathered at the National Press Club, including myself, Ray McGovern, Bruce Fein, Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia Papermaster, and Crystal Kim. Videos of what they had to say, and their questions and answers with the media, are posted here.

We’ll be watching … will the American people?

Ad 1: Here’s the witness list:

The House Judiciary Committee has released its witness list for Friday’s hearing on Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-Ohio) impeachment resolution. One big surprise - a House Republican will testify.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), a huge critic of President Bush’s policy in Iraq, is scheduled to appear before the Judiciary Committee, according to a witness list just released by the panel.

Former Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate, is also scheduled to testify. Barr was a Republican from Georgia during four terms in the House.

Kucinich, as expected, will testify as well.

Here’s the full witness list released by the Judiciary Committee for Friday’s session:

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich, Representative from Ohio
The Honorable Maurice Hinchey, Representative from New York
The Honorable Walter Jones, Representative from North Carolina
The Honorable Brad Miller, Representative from North Carolina

Panel Two

The Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Representative from New York
The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Representative from Georgia, 2008 Libertarian Nominee for President
The Honorable Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Founder and President, High Roads for Human Rights
Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law
Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82, Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Vincent Bugliosi, Author and former Los Angeles County Prosecutor
Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
Elliott Adams, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

Ad 2: The Daily Kos blog has more details here.

Interesting viewing, although it is still not clear this is going anywhere. And I can find no mainstream news organization covering it online.

Ad 3: I got through to the press office of Rep. Artur Davis, who is not in attendance at the hearing, and his spokesperson, Sarah Kate Sullivan, said he “had a scheduling conflict” and was “on his way back to Alabama.”

Ad 4: Kucinich Testifies on Abuses of Executive Power

On Oversight of the Department of Justice
And the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush

The House Judiciary Committee will question and hear testimony from Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. in a hearing on oversight the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the committee’s Website.

Then on July 25, the committee will hold a hearing on the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.

“Over the last seven plus years, there have been numerous credible allegations of serious misconduct by officials in the Bush Administration,” Conyers said in a statement. “At the same time, the administration has adopted what many would describe as a radical view of its own powers and authorities. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I believe it is imperative that we pursue a comprehensive review commensurate to this constitutionally dangerous combination of circumstances. Friday’s hearings will be an important part of that ongoing effort.”

The Committee is expected to examine a range of legal and legislative responses to allegations of administration misconduct and their expansion of executive branch power.

Since the beginning of the 110th Congress, the Committee has conducted extensive oversight into allegations of misconduct by the administration, including: (1) improper politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys’ offices, including potential misuse of authority with regard to election and voting controversies; (2) misuse of executive branch authority and the adoption and implementation of the so-called unitary executive theory, including in the areas of presidential signing statements and regulatory authority; (3) misuse of investigatory and detention authority with regard to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including questions regarding the legality of the administration’s surveillance, detention, interrogation, and rendition programs; (4) manipulation of intelligence and misuse of war powers, including possible misrepresentations to Congress related thereto; (5) improper retaliation against administration critics, including disclosing information concerning CIA operative Valerie Plame, and obstruction of justice related thereto; and (6) misuse of authority in denying Congress and the American people the ability to oversee and scrutinize conduct within the administration, including through the use of various asserted privileges and immunities.

The July 25 hearing will be held at 10 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Additional information, including witness participation, will be announced.

To coincide with the hearings, the National Impeachment Network (NIN) began its “Choose the Constitution” campaign to bring citizens to Washington, D.C., from July 21 to 25 to personally tell members of Congress to Choose the Constitution by using the remedy of impeachment and to ask them to attend the hearing on impeachment of the full House Judiciary Committee on July 25 at 10 a.m.

The second goal is to expand the news of the hearings nationwide and to ask the media for coverage. For those in D.C. on July 25 there will be a pre-hearing rally at 9 a.m. in front of the Rayburn Building.

Delegation members have been astounded by the response they’ve received, according to the group’s press release.

“During our two week lobbying experience in D.C. we have found the most effective way to present our message is in-person,” says Cynthia Papermaster, NIN Co-Founder.

The NIN lobbyists are taking a positive, supportive approach toward Congress members who have already voiced their support for impeachment, she said. To date more than forty members of Congress have cosponsors of articles of impeachment or demanded immediate impeachment hearings.

During their first three days in D.C., members of the NIN delegation met with Representatives Mike Hinchey (D) New York, Dennis Kucinich (D) Ohio, John Conyers (D) Michigan, Robert Wexler (D) Florida, Lynn Woolsey (D) California and Walter Jones (R) North Carolina.

Following a Wednesday, July 9, afternoon meeting with Dennis Kucinich in which he said he was sending an announcement to members of Congress regarding the presentation of a new impeachment resolution, and after an hour-long early evening meeting with Judiciary Chairman, John Conyers, on Thursday morning Nancy Pelosi said “impeachment hearings may take place.”

One of the goals of the lobbying effort is to present “win-win” solutions,” she said. “They have considered the dilemma that Congressional Representatives find themselves in during this re-election season when most people are concerned about the economy, fuel prices, mortgages and health care.”

Democratic members are concerned that memories of the Clinton impeachment will create a negative backlash from their constituents. The group has offered to work with Congress, to educate and rally the people, and has assured them of support during the election if they stand up for impeachment.

The group offers evidence and reminders of the Nixon years and reminds people that House and Senate members took the first steps towards impeachment then and “have gone down in history.”

Also, a look at history shows that the party that starts impeachment wins the next election.

The National Impeachment Network is a non-partisan umbrella under which activist groups, businesses and individuals that support the impeachment process provided under the constitution can unite, coordinate, and expand the movement. Currently NIN reaches out to more than 40 coordinators and 160,000 activists who in turn reach out to more groups, friends and neighbors.

“Due to continuing education and outreach to members of Congress and the public the movement for impeachment is becoming louder,” the group says.

The next and greatest challenge, she said, is to getting the media to report on it.

For more information contact Cynthia Papermaster, Co-founder and NIN representative in Washington, D.C., at (510)333-6097, or Sandra Marshall in California at (805) 440-2547.

To learn more about the National Impeachment Network visit Nationalimpeachment.org.

Come to DC for this Historic Moment:
“Hearing on the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush”

July 22 - 24: “Impeachment Lobbying Days”
House of Representatives

July 25, 9 a.m.: “Choose the Constitution”
Press Conference and Rally
Rayburn Building, Independence Avenue

July 25, 10 a.m.: Hearing “The Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush”
House Judiciary Committee, Rayburn Bldg, Rm. 2141

“There are two panels being planned for the hearing. One consisting of Kucinich and four other members of Congress (Jane Harman, Walter Jones, Brad Miller, and Maurice Hinchey); the other consisting of five non-Congress Members (Elizabeth Holtzman, Bruce Fein, Frederick Schwartz, John Dean, and Bob Barr).”

As of Tuesday more than 87 thousand people have signed a petition asking the Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt of Congress for ignoring a House subpoena and to send him to jail.

Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin asserted executive privilege as an excuse to ignore Congress; however, President Bush has not invoked the privilege, according to FireDogLake.com.

And why would he, since that would be an admission that the President sought advice on the politicization of the Department of Justice?

Furthermore, Rep. Linda Sanchez of the House Judiciary says absolute immunity only applies to current executive aides.

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman was interviewed about the events and is quoted in this short video.

Guest Editorial: Cheers and Jeers
From DailyKos.com
by Bill in Portland Maine

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Dear President Bush,

It’s been awhile since we talked. Just busy, I guess.

Anyway, I want to Congratulate you. You win. In fact, you win big-time. It’s time for me to admit it: you came, you saw, you kicked ass.

Over the course of the past seven and a half years, you and your wingman Dick Cheney have gotten virtually everything you demanded, much if it without a fight.

You used a national tragedy to clamp down on Americans’ civil liberties and launch a war against a country that neither caused that tragedy nor threatened us at all.

You pretty much halted government-supported scientific research and environmental protection in their tracks. You did nothing to solve the health care crisis.

You politicized the Justice Department. You worked hard to breach the church-state levee in the government, and then played patty-cake while the real levees collapsed into countless people’s back yards. You gave big business (especially big oil, big finance and big military-industrial complex) free reign to “self-police.” You made your elite base very, very rich, while using your shiny lapel pin to awe-strike your poorer, more ignorant base.

I mean, you are so talented that you even managed to break the Census Bureau. My gosh, even Reagan couldn’t figure out how to do that.

And through it all you avoided repercussions. Even losing GOP House and Senate majorities hasn’t slowed you down much.

There’s so much raw evidence to impeach your ass that it would be as easy as Dick Cheney shooting a lawyer in the face. The rap sheet is a mile long. Yet you remain 100 percent unscathed, threatened by nothing more than a pretzel getting stuck in your craw. That’s amazing. My peasant hat is off to you.

Seriously, all you’ve “suffered” (if you can call it that) is low approval ratings. Big deal. As long as you have your 25 percent “base” that thinks you walk on water, you can do anything you want. Smirk. Dance. Ride your bike. Wave. Swagger. Intimidate the Democratic leadership with the word “Boo!”, beat the traditional media so senseless that when you say “jump” they put on rocket shoes and blast off for the stratosphere. Smirk some more. Clear some more brush. Hell, you can do pretty much anything you damn well please.

So, sincerely: congratulations. You may have wrecked the country and your party, but so what? You got everything that you, George W. Bush, wanted out of your time in office. You should have no regrets, since you telescoped your intentions to everyone well in advance (yes, even back in school).

And in seven months you’ll retire and open up a Texas-size think tank disguised as a presidential library that will perpetuate your propaganda and your policies. (”Oh look, Heritage Foundation … you have a baby brother!”)

Many will say your administration was a failure, but that only works if they’re thinking about the welfare of the country and its 300 million citizens. Your presidency was never about them (just ask the Supreme Court) - it was about you taking care of your circle of rich, power-hungry, war-mad cronies while simultaneously setting out to prove how much the federal government can suck. On that score, you may indeed be the best president ever.

Love,
Billy

P.S. Hugs to Laura and the twins.